In 2002, I graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Mons, Belgium with a degree in classical vocal performance – at the head of my class. But I was already fed up with classical music – I couldn’t stand the division between performer and audience. And ao I returned to the world of traveling, writing songs in train stations and sleeping on couches, then singing and playing on street corners, cafés, and pubs.

For a time I lived aboard a 20′ sailboat that I bought for $800, teaching myself how to sail by single-handing through the Baltic and North Seas with my guitar sleeping in the berth beside him at night. I wrote a book about the trip, which begins with the story of almost getting squashed by a tanker before dawn one morning in the North Sea.

In January of 2008, I put out a CD called “Praying For Land.” It’s a well-made thing, all polished and shiny in the right spots. Dave Weber produced it, and did a fantastic job. And I did several discs before that, including “One Night in Louisiana,” a live CD with a few international songs. More about those on the music page.

“In ‘Praying for Land’ we can feel Randall’s bold heart calling us all to follow our dreams.” David Wilcox

I was a tricentric showcaser at the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance in ‘07, and a formal showcase guy at the National Folk Alliance in Memphis in 2008. I’ve done pretty well in a few songwriting contests, and was “Most Wanted to Return” to Falcon Ridge in 2008, as well. I’ve played the Fine Arts Palace in Brussels, the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, and a bunch more cool places.

My newest musical adventure is a song cycle based on “Einstein’s Dreams,” after the national bestseller by the same name. MIT physicist and poet Alan Lightman penned thirty sketches of what Einstein might have dreamed in the months leading up to his discovery of the theory of relativity. The result is more about our common humanity than a physics exercise: in one world, the river of time has eddies and back currents where people are sometimes caught. In another, time repeats itself verbatim, forever. In another, everyone knows the precise moment when the world will end: 26 September 1907.

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4 comments on “bio.”

Randall,
Do you have a CD with your song about Peace Pilgrim and The Jesus Kitchen on it? I would love to have that CD and other songs like those! Also, I found your CDs on iTunes, but why don’t you sell them here through Paypal? Thanks!

Rachel!! good to see you here. BEST CD option is here: http://www.cdbaby.com/artist/RandallWilliams And I can also do Paypal, but CD Baby is way bettah. And I can email you those songs no prob, but not now over slow Indian internet connections. 🙂